It's been a year since the doomed Titanic sub imploded. The crew of the Titan died when their submarine malfunctioned and imploded on the way to the wreckage of the Titanic. Now, a lawsuit alleges their final moments was fille with "terror and mental anguish." The new lawsuit alleges that the crew "were well aware they were going to die."
The family of French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet filed a wrongful death suit against OceanGate. They accused the company of neglecting key safety and regulations. Nargeolet died aboard the Titan sub alongside four others. The Titanic sub hit major headlines when it disappeared on the way to explore the Titanic.
The lawsuit alleges that the sub "dropped weights" an hour and half into its voyage. This suggests the crew tried to abort the dive. "While the exact cause of failure may never be determined, experts agree that the Titan's crew would have realized exactly what was happening," the court papers read. "Common sense dictates that the crew were well aware they were going to die, before dying."
Titanic Sub Implodes
The lawsuit alleges that the crew likely heard the Titanic sub's carbon fiber's crackling. "The crew may well have heard the carbon fiber's crackling noise grow more intense as the weight of the water pressed on Titan's hull. The crew lost communications and perhaps power as well," the suit said.
It continued, "By experts' reckoning, they would have continued to descend, in full knowledge of the vessel's irreversible failures, experiencing terror and mental anguish prior to the Titan ultimately imploding."
According to the lawsuit, OceanGate failed to disclose important information about the submarine and its safety. "The lawsuit further alleges that even though Nargeolet had been designated by OceanGate to be a member of the crew of the vessel, many of the particulars about the vessel's flaws and shortcomings were not disclosed and were purposely concealed," lawyers for his estate said in a statement.
The lawsuit seeks a small fortune for the death of the adventurer. Additionally, d OceanGate CEO and co-founder Stockton Rush, British adventurer Hamish Harding, and Pakistani father and son Shahzada and Suleman Dawood died as well.
"Decedent Nargeolet may have died doing what he loved to do, but his death — and the deaths of the other Titan crew members — was wrongful," the lawsuit alleges.
